CASAS Iowa ABE Leadership -- Northwest Iowa Community CollegeProject Summary Report FY'2000Lynn Rolfsmeier and Richard Menning Introduction: This is the first year that a concerted effort was made by NCC to approach businesses and industries in our area with the concept of adult basic skill assessment and instruction. This effort was prompted by the realization that the limited labor pool made it essential for employers to consider training and enhancing the skills of their present employees to retain and improve them. Observations: During this initial year of involvement several consistent factors emerged when dealing with business and industry. First of all, leadership of the company must be supportive of training individuals as part of that company's culture and that includes CASAS. A stand-aside attitude will not suffice. Leadership must encourage and promote training as an integral part of improving the employee and their performance. Leadership must also understand basic skill training as enhancement prior to other training in order for it to be effective. There needs to be a culture that values learning for the good of the individual as well as benefiting the company. We experienced such a climate at a company where a team of top managers and supervisors came to NCC with a variety of training needs. This group was on its way to CASAS basic workplace skill assessments for establishing benchmarks for training and skill building. An unexpected change in the top leadership quickly reversed our efforts to implement CASAS. Secondly, we learned that working as a team is more effective. As a team from a community college, we are interesting in providing quality, effective training, learning and development. When approaching business and industry we have the benefit of two perspectives and twice as many ears for listening to the needs of those we contact. And, as mentioned previously, a team from a business that has proper motivation, understanding and buy-in can act as supporters, champions if you will, to encourage participation in training initiatives. The previously mentioned company had a steering committee of 10 individuals who were developing a training plan for their company. That came to an end with the new leader at the top. Finally, tying assessment and basic skill instruction to other training ventures and initiatives makes sense to the learner and provides value-added incentives to the employer and employee. Adult learners will endorse and embrace learning/training is it is voluntary and they feel it is of value to them. Presenting the ECS appraisal and any pre-test as a tool to help the learner and instructor make the instruction more effective is essential. Activity: Presentations were made to over twenty businesses in Northwest Iowa with a wide range of response. These 21 businesses varied from small manufacturing companies that are local, to companies in the area that have worldwide, global connections. Machining, printing, and manufacturing as well as health and health products were included. Of these companies, NCC is involved with training initiatives with eleven of them. Three of these companies utilized CASAS appraisals and basic skill instruction in conjunction with other training. Other training interventions included blueprint reading and geometric tolerancing, shop technology, supervisory training and nurse aid preparation. Additional presentations were made to the 2000 CASAS Summer Institute, a Drake University class and an NCC Continuing Education workshop entitled "Employee Assessment and Skill Improvement". Conclusion: Some companies see the value of training, particularly basic skill enhancement as part of what they should do for and with employees to improve employees, production and profit as well as the community at large. Other company cultures deny there a need for skill building, especially with their employees. Or if there is a skill gap, the company does not see the necessity or value of training nor do they feel it is their responsibility. Here lies opportunity for educators and performance improvement specialists. In an economic climate where good productive employees are in demand and at a premium, many employers see the reality of developing and improving their own work force. Again, tying skill building, i.e., basic skill instruction to other training interventions addressing business needs seems likely to be the most successful method of performance improvement. Support must come from the leadership of the company, and educators and industry need to team together to provide the most effective training. We have found that when using the CASAS system it is imperative to address assessment, learning and performance in terms of business needs that address operational and strategic goals for an organization.
Posted August 4, 2000 |